Quality Improvement Science and Systems Analysis

Overview 

This module introduces the principles and practical applications of Quality Improvement (QI). In healthcare settings, QI is always in the context of multiple overlapping and nested (one within another) systems. We introduce how to think about and analyse complex systems and illustrate with examples from hospital care systems. Making change stick in the long run is a recurring challenge for QI in clinical settings. The module will address resistance to change, and the factors that increase the chances of change being accepted and sustained over time. 

Topics covered include: 

• A brief history of QI in healthcare 
• QI principles and methods 
• Analysing and understanding care systems, pathways and processes (including value stream/process mapping) 
• Psychological, social and organisational aspects of change 
• Measurement for improvement 
• Understanding and improving patient and staff experience; methods for patient and staff engagement 
• Principles for optimising productive systems (including lean production and optimising flow) 
• How to set up and organise QI projects (including Model for Improvement, PDSA cycles and project work-planning) 
• Making change stick.
  

Run by the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences and taught in central Oxford, the module is co-ordinated by Mr Tom Revington, Departmental Lecturer and Course Director for the MSc in Surgical Science and Practice. Class sizes are kept small, usually 20 or fewer, to allow interaction with tutors and exchange of experience among students. Study before and after the course is supported by online learning resources created exclusively for module participants. 

Faculty 

Recent faculty have included: 

Mr Tom Revington, module lead and Departmental Lecturer.  Tom studied biochemistry at Oxford including a spell researching T Cell responses at the Institute for Molecular Medicine under Professor Andrew McMichael. He was a diplomat in the late 1990s and early 2000s, with a posting to Istanbul and a period running the briefing unit for ministers negotiating at EU Council meetings. Between 2004 and 2012 he worked at management consultancy McKinsey & Company with a focus on capacity building in healthcare provider organisations. In 2012, he established a consulting and training company, Revington Associates, and in 2016 began teaching at Oxford University.  He was appointed Departmental Lecturer at the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences in 2022.  

Professor Steve New, module faculty.  Steve is Associate Professor in Operations Management at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School. He is a leading scholar of the Toyota Production System (‘lean’) and its applications in healthcare, with work published in healthcare journals such as the British Medical Journal. His current research interests include supply chain management and process improvement in healthcare 

Dr Nathan Proudlove, module faculty.  Senior Lecturer at Manchester Business School.  Nathan has worked on health management issues since the mid-1990s. Nathan's particular interests include flow issues such as capacity and demand, forecasting, bed management, and process improvement.   

Ms Caroline Witney-Lagen, guest speaker.  Caroline is a consultant orthopaedic surgeon and alumni of the MSc in Surgical Science and Practice.  Her supervised research project focused on understanding patient experience and engaging patients in improving flow and experience through outpatient clinics. 

Ms Anna Burhouse, module faculty.  Anna is Director of Quality Development at Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, working in the patient and staff experience team. A consultant Child & Adolescent Psychotherapist by background, on the module she teaches methods for understanding and working with patient and staff experience in healthcare. 

Professor Mohammed Amin Mohammed.  Mohammed is an academic at the University of Bradford conducting applied research into quality, safety and improvement in healthcare. He has 90+ peer reviewed publications, including landmark papers in the Lancet (on understanding variation in healthcare), BMJ (on bias in hospital mortality statistics), evaluation of a care bundle (JAMA Surgery) and a prize-winning study that developed an electronic frailty index for primary care (Age and Ageing). On the module Mohammed teaches systems thinking. 

Assessment  

Assessment is by written assignment.

Mode of attendance 

This course can be taken: 

• as a five-day short course (with or without completing the written assignment) 
• as part of the MSc in Surgical Science and Practice 
• as part of the Postgraduate Certificate in Patient Safety and Quality Improvement.

Short course participants who later enrol in the MSc or PGCert

Short course participants who submit a module assignment and achieve a pass, and within two years enrol in an award-bearing course (e.g. MSc, PGDip, PGCert) which includes the module, may request exemption from re-taking the module. 

Short course participants who do not wish to undertake the written assignment but who do satisfy the course attendance requirements will receive a certificate of attendance. 

Venue and accommodation